So I have made two dresses, one marriage dress, one evening gown, and two corsets, and a tiara, and a nice warm clutch coat. I forgot my camera so I don’t have better pictures of the corset for now, but here it is:

The corset is made of white coutil with the same fabric the dress was made of as the top layer. The busk is gold plated, the lace is from England, it’s made by the last factory in England which still makes real cotton lace, made on antique machines, with antique patterns. They were the ones who also made the lace for the recent Royal wedding. But of course my wedding is way more important!

This is the back of the corset:

This is the dress, almost finished. My stand is antique, from 1880, and it is smaller than I am, and shorter too, so the dress hangs a bit loose. I used a vintage vogue pattern from 1953. I first made two toiles, before cutting the actual fabric. The fabric is a creamy white with embroidered vines with leaves and flowers. I brought fresh water pearls from China and I sewed one pearl on every flower. It also should have a petticoat underneath.

Here I am wearing it all! Trying out the snooty fifties model look! The petticoat was surprisingly warm. The gloves are vintage (the something old) The earrings and necklace were gifts from valued friends, (the something new), and I had sewn a blue ribbon bow inside the dress, and a silver coin.

The umbrella is a pagoda umbrella from the excellent Danish designer Lisbeth Dahl, I love the umbrella, and it was particularly appropriate as we got married in Denmark! I am wearing the coat here as well, it is made of a creamy white wool/cashmere blend, and lined with the same fabric as the dress. I did the flowers myself too. I brought the roses from the people at the flower market I have brought my flowers from since I was a student, the ivy (you can’t see it) is an ancient symbol of love, marriage, fidelity and growing together, and it is from my garden. I had three darker pink roses which a friend brought with her, they are a variety called ”Ribe Ruse” or something like that… This is important because we got married in Ribe in Denmark!

We got married in Denmark because the paperwork in the Netherlands made it impossible to get married in my country, and the process was horrendously complicated and we could set no dates aside and it was too problematic to get married in America. Also it took way too long!
In Denmark, EU country, Schengen country, it is very simple to get married. Very simple paperwork, very simple process, and I got in touch with a Danish Wedding planner who made the whole process a wheeze, as well as being very helpful with all the extra arrangements because we had a lot of friends and family coming.

So anybody who wants to get married and has too much hassle with paperwork and silly rules in their own country, or if you just want a beautiful, super romantic destination wedding, contact Rita at Wedding Denmark.

So here are the covers, inside is a little vial where you can put your perfume if you like.

I drew the illustrations directly in the book, in the empty spots.

The fatal perfume is presented!

Inspector Alleyn inspects the body…

So I have been working on making corsets. I am still working on utter perfection though.

So here is my first corset. I’ve been wearing it a lot, and I still like it. I have already worn out one corset lace on this one.
I made it from a pattern, which was published in a dutch magazine, La Gracieuse in 1880, and ”adapted to the modern figure”. Which is where it goes wrong, because I don’t think I have the modern figure. Anyway, while making it I already adapted it a bit, so it’s not exactly following the pattern after all.
It is made of denim (!) not coutil, fused onto the curtain fabric which is the outer layer. It hasn’t stretched yet. It has a wide busk and spring steel bones. Because I happened to have them hanging around.
I still wear it quite often because it is a great corset and makes me a lot more comfortable when I have my moon-time. I think it cuts down on my painkillers by about 50%!
The spring steels make it a bit heavy, but it’s greatest drawback is that it doesn’t allow enough space for my hips and my bum, after a few hours that starts to irritate me.
After making this corset I was hooked and kept dreaming of more.

So then I started experimenting a bit. This is my #3 corset, made of coutil inside and Boutonniere Broche on the outside. So two layers of proper corset material. I have been abusing wearing this corset a lot!
Oh, yes, and I completely forgot to put in a waist tape…
The idea behind this corset is to have more space for my hips and bum (btw, it was not enough) an hourglass waist, and lots of space for my ribs, (actually too much), so I can have full use of my lungs while cycling. Because while you normally don’t notice anything, if you are, for example cycling up against one of these very steep bridges in Amsterdam, you notice you are restricted by a corset.

This corset is made with single 7mm boning which is a bit too light. (#2 was made with single 11mm) One time I was bored and tried my hand at a bit of flossing. All bones are flossed on this corset.

#4 corset turned out to be incredibly wasp waisted, a bit too much really, I don’t waist train. It is more of a waspie, I used a smaller busk, with swarovski crystals in the little nobs, really pretty and very sturdy. It is also the first corset where I made the bias tape myself from the same fabric.

I then made two corsets, at the same time, I call both of them #4, with the same (altered again) pattern. I needed to get rid of that extreme wasp waist. One is at home, made of lovely velvet and coutil, and this one, made of a vintage fabric I have had since I was in high school and never dared to use for anything because I love it! now an underbust corset doesn’t take a lot of fabric so this is the first time I used some of it. I had a busk with gilded hooks and knobs, very pretty, and spring steels next to it for stiffness. The other bones are 11 mm spiral steels. The inside is of white coutil.
I added even more space for hips and bum, and it’s getting to be enough, just a little bit more…

Showing the back to show the nice creme rivets (in a steel lacing bone). And the ribbon, This is the only corset I close with a ribbon instead of a lace, or my favorite: a good looking black nicely woven thin rope from the hardware store.

#5, Black coutil inside and the black boutonniere broche on the outside. this one is supposed to be for comfort, with finally enough hip and bum space (at last!) Double boned with 11mm spring steel, which I think is overdoing it a bit. next time I will use the 7mm spring steel boning. Very nice black powder coated busk, which I again paired with spring steel bones. Forgot the waist tape again! We’ll see how that works out in this very heavily boned corset.

The black busk. I will abuse this one a lot to find out how sturdy that powder coating actually is!

#6. The last one up to date. Back to square one. I took the commercial pattern, and added the needed space for hips and bum. (perfect). It is now a bit too wide in the chest at the back. I do make mock ups, but you only really notice the irritating details after a hours, or even days, of wearing
The fashion fabric was pretty but nasty to work with, very thin, frayed a lot, and as you see it’s rippling! Which makes this corset unacceptable. I might make another one, because I love the fabric (it’s inside out btw, because I liked that even better) and fuse it. I had prepared the strips of fabric to make bias tape, but I wanted it for my trip so made do with commercial bias tape. I always like a black border anyway.
Now this is very nice, very comfortable, but I can’t seem to get rid of the hourglass waist when I really want to make a good fit. I am going to try one more time, to have a fitting Perfect Pattern, with slightly less hourglass effect.,

The back, laced with my favorite lacing: the rope from my hardware store. Dead cheap, and it doesn’t slip when lacing up, and pretty! A bit too short, so I didn’t lace the last rivet. These are burnished brown.

This is the ”under painting”

The finished portrait

So I have drawn the design, and colored it, to understand it better.

I want to make it in black and white broche

And I kept on making plans and sketches, a birdcage corset. There are more people who play with this idea, it’s not mine. Alexis of Electra designs corsets has made one.

Mine will be made (if I get around doing it) with double white coutil, and lots of spiral bones, one under each black line which is the bone casing. The bird is a phoenix painted on the coutil

Another sidestep from BIG ART is sewing. I like to make a lot of my own clothes, and since last year I got interested into corsets. A girl from whom I used to buy haberdasheries in the market got me on to it. I brought some materials but I never got around actually making one. But last September I did. (I have been trying to make a decent photo all morning but none of them came out any good)
(so you’ll just have to deal with these rather bad photo’s)
So this is the first one, I used a commercial pattern for it, but I tweaked it around a bit.

And the strange thing is, I love wearing it! Especially if I have a bit of a belly- or back ache! I wanted to finish it for my costume at the sidesaddle competition, (it wasn’t finished in time) There is still a lot left to be desired on this corset.
Anyway, I have made three more! They are all underbusts. I have been experimenting a bit, I made one with the idea it should be usable, comfortable and simple. It is made from two layers of simple black coutil. (coutil is the special fabric you need for making a proper corset)

And then I made this one, which is supposed to be super comfortable, and not constrict breathing when cycling up one of those high bridges in Amsterdam…
It is made of a beautiful flowered Broche, lined with black coutil.

Detail with flossing

And then my super hourglass waisted evening underbust! Made of Chinese brocade, and the busk has little swarovski crystals on the knobs… But the photography wasn’t good enough to capture them.

And I have two more ready to be sewn up! I can’t wait until I am home again and can start working on them!
I am also going to start on making an overbust.
Who needs tv?

Anyway, although it’s a pretty hefty fragrance I wore it day and night well into my years at the Royal College of Art. I liked it especially on my own skin, not so much on other peoples skin. But in London, at the Royal College of Art I met a friend who wore Miss Balmain and on her it smelled the same as on me!
When I got a new (large) bottle on my birthday, (thank you generous parents), I suddenly did not like it anymore.
I tried to work my way through the bottle, thinking I was being weird but I couldn’t. I am now convinced it was one of those sneaky, secret reformulations of which they think we, the loyal fans, will not notice.
Well I did. I never asked for, or brought Miss Balmain again.

But, as the homage to my first love I have made a MissBalmain painting.
I am showing some stages to share my anxieties.
This Perfume series is about vintage perfumes, and exploring a more graphic manner of working, and some of the effects of vintage advertisement art.
One very typical style used from the Art Nouveau era onwards was a subtilegradation of shadows, and a very strong dark outline.

So, I planned to do the same on this painting.
here’s a sketch,

Here you see the painting (in the Q’s hall which I have taken over as my studio) and the two sketches.

So I had all those subtle shading and I was now going to edge it with a black line. That freaked me out, I entertained the idea that maybe I should go for the easy approach and forget about the Art Nouveau influence…
But I decided to take the plunge, and as I added the line I thought I should document this, so I could think about it later.
So here it is:

The line, eyes and eyebrows completed,

The furry jacket completed, I decided to keep that free of the outline to enhance the fluffiness and create a counter effect.

Miss Balmain
Acrylic on Canvas
30” x 40”

TABU, Anything might happen…
Acrylic on canvas
30” x 30”
€500,-

Vintage Emeraude is a lovely fragrance with notes of vanilla, orange blossom, amber and musk.

I’m sorry but I couldn’t get a really clean photograph, the dark green kept reflecting the light.

Emeraude

80 x 100cm
31,5” x 39,4”
acrylics on canvas
€500,-